Angel Di Maria scored on his Serie A debut before a Dusan Vlahovic brace swept Sassuolo aside 3-0, as Juventus start the season on the right foot.
The pressure was already on the Bianconeri to deliver after ending the season empty-handed for the first time in a decade. Paul Pogba, Wojciech Szczesny, Federico Chiesa and Kaio Jorge were injured, Moise Kean and Adrien Rabiot suspended, with Filip Kostic on the bench after joining from Eintracht Frankfurt this week. The visitors missed Hamed Junior Traore and banned Maxime Lopez, benching new buy Andrea Pinamonti and Napoli target Giacomo Raspadori.
Alex Sandro had penalty appeals waved away in the opening minute for a tangle of legs with Mert Muldur, which ended up damaging the Sassuolo defender’s ankle and forcing him off on a stretcher.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
After a sluggish start, Sassuolo started to take control with a series of chances, including Mattia Perin making two tricky saves on Gregoire Defrel.
Juve recovered after the cooling break and took the lead with Alex Sandro’s cross finding Angel Di Maria for a scuffed volley that bounced off the ground and looped up over Andrea Consigli.
Dusan Vlahovic volleyed inches wide soon after, while Perin flew to parry a ferocious long-range Kaan Ayhan scorcher and Juan Cuadrado stung Consigli’s gloves.
Vlahovic was brought down by Gian Marco Ferrari when trying to turn in the box and the Serbian striker converted the resulting penalty straight down the centre.
Raspadori was introduced at half-time and Matheus Henrique tested Perin with a powerful effort, then Di Maria’s curler flashed inches wide after a run from his own half.
Sassuolo gifted the third goal, as Ayhan passed straight to Di Maria, whose deflected through ball was still finished by Vlahovic from eight yards.
Danilo needed a desperate block to prevent Davide Frattesi’s tap-in on a well-worked Sassuolo move and Filip Kostic came on for his Juve debut. However, Di Maria limped off clutching the adductor at the top of his thigh.
Perin had to parry an Andrea Pinamonti angled drive and the Kostic strike was charged down before a Vlahovic effort was deflected just wide by Ayhan.
Juventus 3-0 Sassuolo
Di Maria 26 (J), Vlahovic pen 43, 50 (J)
GREAT performance from Di Maria, Vlahovic, Danilo, Bremer and Rovella.
Allegri plays Miretti, Rovella and Soulé.
Seems like some people has to change their view on him only playing dinosaurs…
We need 5 straight results like this before I can relax.
I don’t trust Allegri.
Credit to phd Max for getting 3 goals. That is like a ufo siting in terms of his champagne calcio. 1 down, 37 to go for 4th spot tripleta.
@Many wise guys great point, but you forgot about Alex Sandro who played the best game in 3 years. I think this team still needs to gel. I think Bonucci and Bremer worked well together. That was a good to see. I think when Allegri has his players that wants, he can make things happen. We beat a middle table team so I think we definitely we need to improve. Good win though and I hope we can get better as we play more games. DiMaria fits like a glove though.
@LORD ALLEGRI PATRON SAINT OF SLOW BALL So you have named your dog Max?
Agree with Patron. The season is young, Allegri is old and the same issues persist. A better side will expose them.
@Steve Of course a better side will expose them but those teams aren’t in Serie A.